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Our  Land  Policy— Ms  Evils  and  their  Remedy, 


IB:  , 


HON.  GEORGE  W.  JULIAN, 


OF    C»  DIANA, 


fa  the  House  rf  Bepresenlatives,  March  6,  1868; 


Vl&e  ISonse  tia-vinsr  can<3«f  <Doni=!t<l«ratien  toill  T^o.  37t>,  to  present  <fte  fnrtlier  •ale  odt; 
tl%e  public  lands  of  tti«  United  States,  except  as  provided   for  In  the 
exnption  oud  Homestead  i»vrs,  and  the   l.a*vs  for  iae  <U»|>o»Jti 
of  i«twn  a*tc«  azul  saiinei-stl  lands. 


L 


WABHTNOTOIfi 

Printed  at  the  Office  «f  TUB  CHEAT  RBPCBUC,  499  llth  Street. 
1868. 


Our  Land  Policy— Its  Evils  and  their  Remedv. 


\ 
.2J 


Mr.  JULIAN 

Mr.  SrEAREn  :  Perhaps  tnere  is  no  ques- 
tion affecting  the  civil  administration  of  tho 
Government  which  more  deeply  concerns 
the  people  of  the  United  States  than  that 
which  is  submitted  in  the  bill  I  have  hud 
the  honor  to  report  from  the  Committee  on 
Public  Lands.  It  touches  all  the  springs- 
of  our  national  life  and  well-being.  It 
raakes  its  appeal  to  every  landless  citizen 
of  the  Republic,  and  to  every  foreigner  who 
comes  to  our  shores  in  search  cf  a  home. 
It  reaches  down  to  the  Very  foundations  of 
democratic  equality,  and  takes  hold  on  the 
coming  ages  of  industrial  development  and 
Christian  civilization  in  tho  rapidly  multi- 
plying States  of  our  Union.  Had  the  pol- 
icy now  proposed  beon  accepted  by  the 
nation  a  generation  ago,  before  its  magnifi- 
cent patrimony  had  been  so  grievously 
marred  and  wasted  by  legislative  profligacy 
and  plunder,  the  gratitude  of  millions  would 
have  attested  the  blc?scd  results,  the.  failure 
of  which  m.liior.s  must,  deplore.  Not  a  sin- 
gle hour  of  further  delay  should  stay  the 
friendly  hand  of  Congress  in  rescuing  the 
Remaining  heritage  of  a  thousand  million 
acres  Jfrom  the  improvident  administration 
of  the  past. 

THE  MEASUBE  F.XPLATXRD — PRE-EMPTION  AND 
irOJILSTEAD  LAWS. 

Before  proceeding  to  the  general  discus- 
sion'of  Ihia  measure  it  m;:y  be  well  briefly 
to  re  for  to  its  particular  provisions,  and  their 
effect  in  modifying  the  action  of  its  con- 
trolling principle.  It  forbids  the  further 
Bale  of  the  public  lands,  except  as  provided 
for  in  the  pre-emption  and  homestead  laws. 
These  laws  have  been  improved  by  repeat- 
ed amendments,  which  have  been 


by  experience,  and  their  machinery  is  un- 
derstood by  the  people.  Under  the  pre- 
emption laws  the  settler  may  select  hie 
home  on  the  surveyed  or  unsurveyed  lauds, 
and  perfect  his  titleon  the  easy  conditions  of 
settlement  and  improvement,  and  the  pay- 
ment of  $1  25  per  acre.  Under  tho  home- 
stead laws  like  conditions  of  settlement 
and  improvement  arc  required,  but  the 
claimant  is  restricted  tothesurveyedlands; 
and.  the  payment  of  $1  25  per  acre  is  only 
required  where  ho  shall  decide  to  perfect' 
his  title  at  once  by  the  purchase  of  his 
homestead,  which  he  may  do  after 'the  re- 
quired improvement  has  been  made.  Tht- 
purpose  of  both  the  pro  cmption  and  home- 
stead laws  is  the  settlement  and  tillage  of 
tlie  public  domaia  by  those  who  need 
h.  mcs,  and  the  option  is  given  to  every  set- 
tler to  determine  Bunder  which  class  of 
laws  he  can  best  subserve  his  interest. 

COLLEGE  SCRIP  AND  COUNTY-LAND  WARRANTS 
TO    DE    LOCATED. 

The  bill  reserves  to  the  holders  of  military 
bounty-land  warrants,  agricultural  college 
scrip,  and  other  land  scrip,  the  right  to  lo- 
cate the  same.  This  could  not  be  other- 
wise. However  mistaken,  .or  pernicious 
the  policy  of  issuing  these  warrants  and 
this  scrip  may  now  be  regarded,  the  faith 
of  the  nation  is  plighted  that  they  may  be 
located  according  to  the  terms  prescribed 
by  Congress.  Lands  selected  for  town 
sites  are  likewise  expressly  cxcepted  from 
the  opera:  ions  of  tho  bill,  because  their 
disposition  is  already  provided  for.  An 
act  tor  the  disposal  of  coal  lands  and  town 
sites  on. the  public  domain,  approved  July 
1,  18G4,  and  the  act  amendatory  thereto  o'f 
March  3,  18G5,  make  special  provision  for 


'.he  disposition  of  such  lands,  and  properly 
withdraw  them  from  the  scope  of  this   bill. 

MINERAL  LANDS  EXCKPTED SOME  FACTS 

STATKD. 

Mineral  lands  are  also  excepted,  and  for 
kindred,  though  less  conclusive  reasons. 
The  pot-ali?!!1  character  of  these  lands  calls 
for  peculiar  legislation;  and  the  act  of 
Congress  of  July  2G,  18GG,  undertook  to 
deal  with  them.  The  act  is  singularly 
crude  and  clumsy,  and  very  few  persons 
thus  fur  have  even  attempted  to  assert  title 
under  it.  Its  history  is  not  less  remarkable. 
It  pasr.cd  tic  Senate  near  the  close  of  the 
first  session  of  the  Thirty-Ninth  Congress, 
without  any  previous  general  discussion  by 
the  members  of  that  body..  On  reaching 
the  House  it  was  referred  to  the  Committee 
"on  Public  Lands,  which  at  once  proceeded 
to  consider  it,  and  to  reconstruct  its  !cad- 
tng'fcaturcs.  -This  did  not  suit  its  friends 
in  the  Senate,  who  caused  it  to  be  attached 
to  tJK3  enacting  clause  of  a  bill  then  pend- 
ing in  that  body,  entitled  "An  act  granting 
the  right  of  way  to  ditch  and  canal  owners 
over  the  public  lands  in  the. States  of  Cali- 
fornia, Oregon,  and  Nevada."  Under  this 
strange  title  it  was  re-enacted  in  the  Sen- 
ate; and  on  finding  its  way  to  the  Speak- 
"cr's  table  during  the  closing  hours  of  the 
session,  it  was  hurried  through  the  House 
in  utter  disregard  of  the  rights  of  the  com- 
mittee having  it  in  charge,  without  any  op- 
portunity whatever  for  general  discussion, 
without  oven  the  pretense  that  its  provis- 
ions were  understood,  and  by  parliamentary 
tactics,  which,  if  generally  adopted,  would 
convert  the  business  of  legislation  into  a 
•system  of  gambling,  in  which  the  very  ti- 
tles of  our  laws  would  brand  them  as  the 
progeny  of  knavery  and  fraud.  The  re- 
markable decline  in  the  product  of  bullion 
during  the  past  year  is  undoubtedly  due, 
to  a  considerable  extent,  to  the  uncertainty 
of  titles  in  the  great  mining  regions,  and 
the  need  cf  a  fixed  code  of  laws  ;  and  since 
there  is  a  bill  now  pending  here  amendatory 
of  the  law  under  notice,  and  its  manifest 
faults  mast  lead  to  ite  perfection,  thews  is 


no  occasion  to  deal  with  the  question  in  the  . 
measure  now  before  the  House. 

GENERAL  PRINCIPLES    OF   THE    BILL  STATED 

THE    GOVERNMENT    BOUND    TO    RKNDER     ITS 
DOMAIN  AS  PRODUCTIVE  AS  POSSIBLE. 

With  those  qualifications,  M r.  Speaker, 
the  bill  I  have  reported  withdraws  from 
further  sale  the  public  domain  of  the  Uni- 
ted States,  and  dedicates  it,  in  reasonable 
homesteads,  to  actual  settlement  and  pro- 
ductive wealth  ;  and  it  is  this  fundamental 
and  far-reaching  principle  to  which  I  now 
invite  the  attention  of  this  House  and  of 
the  country. 

Mr.  Speaker,  I  hold  it  to  be  a  clear  prop- 
osition that  the  Government,  as  the  servant 
of  the  people,  is  bound  to  render  the  terri- 
tory under  its  control  as  productive  as  pos- 
sible. Both  political  economy  and  the  law  ' 
of  nature  sanction  this  principle.  The  Gov- 
ernment has  no  right  to  withhold  its  vacant 
lands  from  tillage,  while  its  own  citizens 
desire  them  for  homesteads,  and  are  willing 
to  make'  them  contribute  to  the  general 
wealth.  ''Nothing."  says  Locke,  "was 
made  by  God  for  man  to  spoil  or  destroy." 
Valtcl  declares  that  the  cultivation  of  the 
soil  is  •'  a  profession  that  feeds  the  human 
race  ;"  that  it  is  "  the  natural  employment 
of  man,"  and  "an  obligation  imposed  by 
nature  on  mankind;"  and  that  therefore  it 
"  deserves  the  utmost  attention  of  the  GOT-  • 
eminent"  He  says,  u  The  sovereign  ought 
to  neglect  no  means  of  rendering  the  land 
under  his  jurisdiction  as  well  cultivated  as 
possible.  He  ought  not  to  allo\v  either, 
communities  or  private  persona  to  acquire 
large  tracts  of  laxd  and  leave  them  uncul- 
tivated.". He  adds,  "  The  whole  earth  is 
destined  to  feed  its  inhabitants  ;  but  this  it 
wculd  be  incapable  of  doing  if  it  were  un- 
cultivated. Every  nation  is  then  obliged 
by  the  law  of  nature  to  cultivate  the  land 
that  has  fallen  to  its  share."  '«  The  earth," 
says  the  Westminster  Review,  "is  the  great 
mother  which  all  should  regard  with  filial 
reverence.  To  the  earth  we  owe  alike  our 
lives  and  our  pleasures,  and  it  there  be  aa 
excess  of  poverty  and  misery  among  men  U 


is  because  the  earth  is  'not  tilled  in  soch  a 
manner  as  to  yield  the  maximum  of  the 
•necessaries  of  life."  "Nomnn,"  says  Join 
Stuart  Mill,  "made  the  land.  It  is  the 
original  inheritance  of  the  whole  species  ;" 
and  he  declares  that  "wherever,  in  any 
country,  the  proprietor,  generally  speak- 
ing, ceases  to  be  the  improver,  political 
economy  has  nothing  to  say  in  defense  of 
landed  property,  as  there  established." 
These  authorities,  which  couid  readily  be 
multiplied,  are  simply  the  echo  of  common 
sense.  They  are  the  voice  of  reason  and 
justice,  affirming,  in  different  forms  of 
speech,  the  scriptural  truth  that  tho  earth 
belongs  "to  tho  children  of  men." 

PROFITABLENESS  OF  SMALL  OWNERSHIPS  OF 
LAND,  WHEN  TILLED  BY  TUEIR  PROPRIE- 
TORS. 

If,  then,  the  Divine  command  to  "  sub- 
due the  earth,"  that  is,  to  improve  it,  and 
compel  it  to  yield  of  its  abundance,  is  bind- 
ing upon  the  Government  as  well  as  the 
citizen,  we  are  naturally  conducted  to  the 
inquiry,  what  policy  ought  it  to  pursue  in 
order  to  secure  the  maximum  of  produc- 
tiveness ?  And  my  answer  is,  the  policy 
of  resisting,  by  all  practicable  methods,  the 
monopoly  of  .the  soil,  while  systematical-ly 
aiming  at  the  multiplication  of  small  homo- 
steads,  which  shall  be  tilled  by  their  pro- 
prietors. On  this  subject,  Mr.  Speaker, 
we  aro  not  left  in  the  dark.  I  shall  not 
now  dwell  upon  the  negative  side  of  the 
argument.  I  shall  not  stop  to  portray  the 
evils  of  land  monopoly,  winch,  in  the  words 
of  a  celebrated  French  writer,  u  hasknawcd 
social  order  from  the  beginning  of  the 
world."  Tb.o  subject  is  an  inviting  one, 
but  I  propose  here  only  to  consider  the 
profitableness  of  small  landed  proprietor- 
ships, in  the  light  of  known  facts.  I  be- 
lieve political  economists  are  agreed  that 
the  true  interest  of  agriculture  is  to  widen 
the  field  of  its  operations  as  far  as  practi- 
cable, and  then,  by  a  judicious  tillage,  to 
make  it  yield  the  very  largest  resources 
compatible  with  the  population-of  the  coun- 
try. Experience  has  abundantly  shown 


that  the  system  of  small  proprietorships 
can  best  secure  these  results,  while  itbrin^ 
with  it  great  Moral  and  social  advantage? 
which  are  unknown  in  countries  that  arc 
cursed  by  overgrown  estates.  I  regrc't  that 
any  argument  or  elucidation  of  this  point 
should  bo  deemed  necessary  in  a  Govern- 
ment which  recognizes  cqiuil  rights  and 
equal  laws  as  the  basis  of  its  .policy;  but 
the  manifest  tendency,  in  multiplied  forms, 
toward  land  monopoly  in  our  country,  ane! 
especially  in  the  V/cst  and  South,  must 
excuse  some  little  particularity  ©f  state- 
ment. 

AUTHORITIES    CITED. 

One  of  the  highest  authorities  on  this 
subject  is  Mr.  Kay's  book  on  "The  Social 
Condition  and  Education  of  the  People  in 
England  and  Europe."  He  speaks  from 
personal  observation  and  travel  in  many 
countries  in  different  parts  of  the  conti- 
nent, and  declares  that  "  the  peasant  farm- 
ing of  Prussia,  Saxony,  Holland,  arid  Swit- 
zerland, is  tho  most  perfect  and  economical 
farming  I  have  ever  witnessed  in  any  coun- 
try." He  quotes  with  favor  the  decided 
opinion  of  another  writer,  that  •'  not  only 
arc  the  gross  products  of  any  given  number 
of  acres  held  and  cultivated  by  email  pro- 
prietors greater  than  the  gross  products  of 
an  equal  number  of  acres  held  by  a  few 
great  proprietors,  and  cultivated  by  tenant 
farmers,  but  that  the  net  products  of  the 
former,  after  deducting  all  the  expenses  of 
cultivation,  are  also  greater  than  the  net 
products  of  the  latter."  Mr.  Laing,  another 
writer  of  authority,  in  his  "Notes  of  a 
Traveler,"  says  :  ' '  We  see,  and  there  is  no 
blinking  the  fact,  better  crops  on  the  ground 
in  Flanders,  East  Friesland,  Ilolstein,  in 
short,  on  the  wholo  line  of  the  arable  land 
of  equal  quality  on  the  continent,  from  the 
Sound  to  Calais,  then  we  see  on  the  line  of 
British  coast  opposite  to  this  lino,  and  in 
the  same  latitudes,  from  the  Frith  of  Forth 
all  round  to  Dover."  And  ho  adds  that 
'"minute  labor  on  small  portions  of  arable 
ground,  gives  evidently,  in  equal  soils  and 
climate,  a  superior  productiveness,  whe& 


these  small  portions  belong  to  the  farmer." 
Mr.  Kay  says  that  "In  Saxony  it  is  a  no- 
torious fact  that,  during  the  last  thirty 
years,  and  since  the  peasants  became  the 
proprietors  of  the  land,  there  has  been  a 
rapid  and  continual  improvement  in  the 
aondition  of  the  houses,  in  the  manner  of 
living,  in  the  dress  of  the  peasants,  and 
particularly  in  the  culture  of  the  land.'' 
He  observes  that  "  The  peasants  endeavor 
to  outstrip  one  another  in  the  quantity  and 
quality  of  the  produce,  in  the  preparation 
of  the  ground,  and  in  the  general  prepara- 
tion of  their  respective  portions.  All  the 
little  proprietors  are  eager  to  find  out  hew 
to  farm  so  as  to  produce  the  greatest  re- 
sults; they  diligently  seek  after  improve- 
ments ;  they  send  their  children  to  the  agri- 
cultural schools  ia  order  to  fit  them  to  as- 
sist their  fathers  ;  and  each  proprietor 
soon  adopts  a  new  improvement  introduced 
by  any  of  Ms  neighbors." 

Sisinondi,  in  his   "Studies  in  Political 
Economy,"  says  :  ''It  is  from   Switzcr'und 
we  learn  that  agriculture,  practiced  b)  the 
very  persons  who  enjoy  its  fruits,  suffices  to 
procure  great  comfort  for  a  very  numerous 
population  ;  a  great  independence  of  charac- 
ter, arising  from  independence  of  position  ;  a 
great  commerce  of  consumption,  the  result 
of  the  easy  circumstances  of  all  the  inhab 
Hants,  even  in  a  country  whose  climate  is 
rude,  whose  soil  is  but  moderately  fertile, 
and  where  late  frosts  and  inconstancy  oi 
seasons  often  blight  the  hopes  of  the  culti- 
vator.''     Speaking  of    small  land-holders 
generally,  ha  sjys :    "Wherever  we  fine 
peasant  proprietors  we  also  find  the  com 
fort,  security,  confidence  in  the  future,  am 
independence,  which  assure  at  once  luippi 
ness  and  virtue.    The  peasant  who,  will 
his  children,  docs  all  the  work  of  Lis  littl( 
inheritance,  who  pays  no  .cut  to   any  on< 
above  him  nor  wages  to  any  one  below 
who  regulates  lua  production   by  his  con 
sumption;  who  oats  his  own  cJrn,  drink; 
his-ownwiuc,  is  clothed  in  his  own  hemp 
and  woo^  «ures  little  for  tho  prices  of  the 


market ;  for 'he  has  little  to  Fell  and  little  to 

my,  and  is  never  mined,  by   revulsions  of 

rade."    And  he  insists  that  **  the  .peasant 

>roprietor  is  of  all  cultivators  the  one  v;ho 

gets  most  from  the  soil,  fur  he  is  the  one 

vho  thinks  most  of  tho  future,  and  who  has 

>ecn  most  instructed  by  experience.     lie  is 

also  the  ond  who  employs  the  human  powers 

o  the   most  advantage,  because,  dividing 

lis  occupations  among  all  the   members  of 

lis  family,  he  reserves  some  for  every  day 

f  the  year,  so  that  nobody  is  ever  out  oi 

work." 

Mr.  Tlowitt,  in  his  "Rural  and  Domestic 

ife  of  Germany,"  saj'S:  u  The  peasants  arc 

not,  as  wjth  us,  for  the  most  part,  totally 

ut  off  from  property  in  the  soil  they  culli 

vate,  totally  dependent  0:1  the  labor  afford 

d  by  others — they  are  themselves  the  pro 

[)rietors.     It  is,  perhaps,   from  this  caus< 

that  they  arc  probably  the  most  inJu-striou 

peasantry  in  the  world.    They  labor  busily 

early  and  late,  -because  they  feel  that  thev 

are  laboring  for  themselves.     Every  ma; 

lius  his  house,  his  orchard,  Vis  road-sid 

trees,  commonly  so  heavy  with  fruit  thath 

is  obliged  to  prop  and  secure  them  always: , 

or  they  would  be  torn  to  pieces.     lie  ha 

his  corn-plat,  his  piat  for  inongel-wurzc 

Cor  hemp,  and  ao  on.     lie  IB  his  own  mat 

ter ;  and  ho,  and  every  member  of  his  fan 

ily,  have  the  strongest  motives  to  labor. 

lie  contrasts  him  with  the  E.iglish  pcasan 

who  "  is  so  cut  off  from  the  idea  of  proper! 

that  he  comes  habitually  to  look  upon  it ; 

a  thing  from  which  he  is  warned  by  the  lav 

of  the  largo  proprietors,  n^d  becoircs,  . 

consequence,  spiritless,  purposeless.     Tl 

German  bauer,  on  the  contrary,  looks  ( 

the  country  as  made  for  him  and  his  fcllo' 

men.     He  feels  himself  a  man;   he  has    ;. 

s'.akc  in  the  country  as  good  as  that  of  t' 

bulk  of  his  neighbors;  no  man  can  threat 

him  with  ejection  or  tho  work-house  BO  lo: 

as  he  is  active  and  economical.     lie  wall 

therefore,  with  a  bold  f  top ;  he  looks  y    i 

in  the  face  with  the  air  of  u  f;*eo  man,  b  t 

of  a  respectful  one." 

Small  farming  in  Franco  forms  no  ex*c  * 


cion  to  these  strong  testimonies.  Arthur 
Young,  in  his  "Travels  in  France,'*  says : 
•'An  aolivity  has  been  here  that  has  swe  t 
away  all  difficulties  before  it,  and  has 
Coined  tho  very  rocks  with  verdure.  It 
would  be  a  disgrace  to  common  sense  to 
/isk  tha  cause;  the  enjoyment  of  property 
must  have  done  it?.  Give  a  man  the  sure 
possession  of  a  bleak  rock,  and  he  will  turn 
ife  into  a  garden ;  give  him  a  nine  years' 
lease  of  a  garden,  and  he  will  convert  it 
into  a  clesert."  Spealang  of  the  country  at 
the  foot  of  the  Yvrestern  Pyrenees,  he  says : 
"It  is  all  in  the  hands  of  little  proprietors, 
without  the  farms  being  so  small  as  to  oc- 
•nisioii  a  vicious  and  miserable  population. 
An  air  of  neatness,  warm'Ji,  and  comfort, 
breathes  over  the  whole.  It  is  visible  in 
their  new-built  houses  and  stables;  in  their 
^ardena;  ki  their  hedges;  in  the  courts  be- 
fore their  doors ;  even  in  the  coops  for  their 
poultry  and  the  sties  for  their  hogs." 

SAD    COMMENTARY    «N    THESE    PRINCIPLES 

LAND  SPECULATION   EXPOSED    AJ*D     REPRO- 
BATED. 

But  T  need  not  further  multiply  authori- 
ties in  support  of  my  position ;  nor  shall  I 
'tttompt  to  demonstrate,  what  is  quite  appar- 
ent from  the  quotations  I  have  made,  that 
the  policy  of  small  homesteads,  on  which 
tho' man  who  holds  the  plow  is  the  owner 
of  the  soil,  is  favorable  to  the  highest  de- 
grcoof  industry  and  thrift;  that  it  becomes 
the  instrument  of  popular  education, 
through  the  self-dependence  of  the,  cultiva- 
tor, whose  mental  faculties  are  thus  natu- 
rally stimulated  and  developed  by  the  cares 
and  responsibilities  brought  to  his  door; 
and  that  it  favors,  also,  the  moral  virtues  of 
prudence,  temperance,  and  self-control.  All 
this  is  asserted  by  our  ablest  political  econ- 
omists. Nckbor  shall  I  dwell  here  upon 
•tbe  fact  that  it  supplies  the  strongest  bond 
of  union  between  tho  citizen  and  the  State, 
and  is  absolutely  necessary  in  a  well-ordered 
•Qommon  wealth.  Putting  all  this  aside,  and 
coming  back  to  my  two  cardinal  principles 
duty  of  the  Government^  in  behalf  of 


the  people,  to  make  its  lands  as  product* ve 
as  possible,  and  the  necessity  of  accom- 
plishing this  end  by  small  holdings,  tilled 
by  their  proprietors — I  proceed  to  notice 
the  startling  commentary  upon  these  prin- 
ciples which  Has  been  furnished  by  the(rov- 
crumcnt  of  the  United  States. 

Tho  Commissioner  of  the  General  Land 
Office  estimates  that  from  the  foundation 
of  the  Government  to  the  present  time 
more  than  thirty  millions  of  acres  of  the* 
aggregate  amount  of  public  lands  sold  have 
not  been  reduced  to  occupancy  as  farms. 
This  would  have  made  one  hundred  and 
eighty-seven  thousand  five  hundred  home- 
steads, of  one  hundred  and  sixty  acres  each, 
and  should  have  been  disposed  of  by  the 
Government  to  actual  settlers  only,  as 
fast  as  it  was  needed,  instead  of  being  hand- 
ed over  to  speculators  and  locked  up  from 
tillage  and  productive  wealth.  Just  to  tha 
extent  that  this  has  been  done  the  Govern- 
ment has  been  the  plunderer  of  the  people. 
It  has  gone  into  partnership  with  the 
speculator  in  cheating  the  pioneer  and 
the  producer,  while  robbing  the  nation- 
al Treasury.  During  the  last  fiscal  yeaar 
nearly  two  millions  of  acres  of  homestead 
entries  have  been  made,  of  which  over  tw* 
hundred  and  sixty-four  thousand  acres 
have  been  entered  in  the  southern  land 
States  under  the  act  of  June  21, 18613.  The 
total  area  of  the  public  domain  absorbed 
under  the  homestead  laws  up  to  the  30th  of 
June  last  exceeds  seven  millions  of  acres, 
represented  by  over  fifty-nine  thousand 
farms.  This  policy  creates  national  wealth, 
and  gives  homes  to  the  laboring  poor.  It 
most  righteously  fosters  the  pursuit  which 
Vattel  declares  to  be  "the  natural  employ 
mentof  man,"  and  which  ''foods  the  human 
race.'"'  Every  new  farm  that  is  snatched 
from  the  wilderness  adds  to  the  wealth  of 
the  nation,  while  the  monoply  of  millions 
of  acres  which  are  withheld  from  cultiva- 
tion is  a  positive  public  curse,  It  is  com- 
puted that  in  tho  year  1835  alone  about 
eight  millions  of  acres  of  tho  public  domain 


parsed  into  the  hands  of  speculators.  The 
money  thus  invested  was  withdrawn  from 
praiseworthy  entc*  prices  and  the  ordinary 
«3e»  of  commerce,  and  sunk  in  the  fruits  of 
the  West,  which  were  allowed  to  3"ield  no 
return.  Great,  stretches  of  these  wild  lands 
tlwis  intervened  between  settlements  which 
wore  afterward  formed,  since  the  poor  pio- 
neer could  not.  puy  the  price  at  which  they 
were  held,  and  was  forced  still  further  into 
flic  wilderness,  where  he  was  compelled,  by 
h's  toils  and  privations,  to  add  to  the  wealth 
of  these  remorseless  monopolists. 

This  system  of  legalized  landlordism  in 
tiiesc  States,  <h!s  practical  inauguration 
among  as  «f  the  feudalism  of  the  Old 
World,  is  (he  very  climax -of  legislative 
madness.  It  cheats  the*poor  settler,  and 
by  dooming  vast  tracts  of  fertile  lands  to 
barrenness  becomes  a  fatal '  hiodrance  to 
agricultural  wealth,  and  to  commerce  and 
manufactures,  which  draw  their  life  from 
the  soil.  Instead  of  flourishing  towns  and 
Tillages,  email  homesteads,  and  an  indepen- 
dent yeoiasnry,  with  the  attendant  blessings 
of  churches  and  free  schools,  it  consigns 
the  fertile  plains  of  the  West  to  the  tender 
moroies  of  the  monopolist,  whose  greed 
alone  is  his  law.  Instead  of  opening  our 
vacani  lands  to  the  stream  of  emigration 
which  would  pour  in  from  the  old  States, 
and  thus  augment  our  imports  and  experts 
through  increased  production,  it  leaves  the 
country  a  wilderneSvS,  or  inhabited  only  by 
a  miserable  tenantry  under  the  control  of 
absentee  landlords.  Instead  of  settling 
the  frontier  of  our  country  and  extending 
the  march  of  civilization.,  it  subjects  tlie 
Government  to  the  expenditure  of  millions 
of  d6llars  in  sustaining  military  posts  which 
else  might  be  wholly  dispensed  with.  In- 
stead of  taking  the  pioneer  into  the  fatherly 
keepingof  th« Government,  end  stimulating 
the  spirit  of  adveo'.ure  by  the  offer  of  a 
free  home  in  the  wilderness,  it  treats  him 
as  a  virtual  cutaast  by  driving  him  beyond 
the  poseessionsof  the  speculator,  for  whoso 
interest  ho  ia  compelled  to  toil.  Thia  ifl  by 


far  the  worst  feature  of  our  present  laaci 
policy.  The  pioneer  subdues  the  foresd 
and  coins  it  into  wealth.  He  encounters 
every  form  of  hardship  and  danger  in  openr 
ing  the  way  for  the  column  of  settlers 
which  is  to  follow,  while  his  life  is  one  of 
constant  privation.  The  settlers  of  our 
frontier  are  the  real  heroes  of  our  time. 
They  are  the  founders  of  our  new  Com- 
monwealths, and  are  ready  to  encounter 
either  wild  beasts  or  savages  in  exploring 
our  distant  borders.  They  build  wagon- 
roads,  bridges,  towns,  and  cities,  and,  by 
surrounding  the  reserved  lands  of  the  spec- 
ulator and  rendering  them  desirable,  adial 
greatly  to  the  wealth  which  be  has  doae 
nothing  to  earn.  Surely  these  person 
have  a  better  right  to  be  consulted  in  the 
disposition  of  the  public  domain  than  the 
men  who  buy  large  tracts,  with  perhaps  no 
expectation  of  ever  seeing  them  again,  or  oJ 
expending  a  dollar  in  their  improvement. 

Mr.  Speaker,  I  have  referred  to  the  thirty 
millions  of  acres  heretofore  sold  by  the  Gov- 

rnment  which  yet  remain  unimproved. 
This,  of  course,  is  only  a  small  fractioa  of 
the  grand  aggregate  which  from  time  to 
time  must  have  passed  under  the  dominioc 
of  monopolists>and  has  sinoe  been  gradually 
reduced  to  cultivation  by  paying  their  tariff 
for  the  privilege.  Nothing  could  be  more 
vicious  in  principle  or  more  ruinous  to  the 
public  interest  than  has  been  this  policy. 
The  Government,  since  its  formation,  has- 
sold  more  than  one  hundred  and  fifty-fora- 
millions  of  acres  ;  and  I  think  I  am  safe  in 
asserting,  after  careful  consideration,  that 
the  nation  has  derived  from  these  lands  less 
than  one  half  the  agricultural  wealth  which 
hey  would  have  yielded  under  the  policy 
for  which  I  now  contend,  if  it  had  beeii 
adopted  in  the  beginning.  Sir,  I  ask  gen- 
tlemen to  ponder  those  facts,  and  say 
whether  the  land  policy  ©f  the  United 
Statee  has  not  been  a  policy  of  systematic 
mprovideoce  and  spoliation.  Every  one 
remembers  the  saying  of  Dean  Swift,  thai, 

whoever  could  make  two  eare  of  eorc  or 


9 


two  blades-  of  grass  to  grow  upon  a  spot  of 
ground  where  only  one  grew  before,  would 
deserve  better  of  mankind,  and  do  more 
essential  service  to  his  country,  than  the 
whole  race  of  politicians."  Has  not  cur 
Government  supplied  a  new  and  striking 
commentary  on  this  saying  in  sporting  with 
one  of  the  grandest  opportunities  the  world 
has  seen  for  the  creation  of  wealth  and  the 
establishment  of  democratic  institutions? 
One  of  the  charges  againa  tthe  British  king- 
which  our  fathers  preferred  in  their  great 
Declaration  was,  that  "he  has  endeavored 
to  prevent  the  population  of  these  States  ; 
for  that  purpose  obstructing  the  laws  ol 
naturalization  of  foreigners,  refusing  to 
pass  others  for  their  migration  hither,  and 
raising  the  conditions  of  new  appropriations 
•f  lands."  Is  not  our  Government  guilty, 
substantially,  of  this  same  charge  ?  Has  not 
its  policy  tended  strongly  "  to  prevent  the 
population  of  these  States/' by  abridging 
the  inducements  of  our  people  to  seek  homes 
en  the  public  domain?  And,  as  to  foreign- 
ers, has  not  its  policy  of  speculation  and 
monopoly  amounted  to  a  refusal  "  to  pass 
laws  to  encourage  their  migration  hither," 
while  "  raising  the  conditions  of  new  ap- 
propriations of  lands?''  Sir,  lot  us  eman- 
cipate the  public  domain  yet  remaining  un- 
der our  care.  Lot  us  dedicate  it  to  honest 
toil,  to  American  homes,  to  productive 
wealth,  and  thus  complete  the  work  so 
nobly  begun  in  the  pre-emption  and  home- 
stead laws.  Let  us  remember  that  in  set- 
ting free  the  public  lands  of  the  Govern- 
ment, and  placing  them  beyond  the  power 
of  monopolists,  we  shall  become  the  crea- 
tors of  wealth  and  the  benefactors  of  com- 
ing generations  ;  and  that  \he  ablest  politi- 
cal economist  cf  our  time  declares  the  ac- 
quisition of  a  permanent  interest  in  the 
eoil  by  the  cultivators  of  it  to  be  as  real, 
and  as  great  an  improvement  in  production, 
as  the  invention  of  the  spinning-jenny  or 
the  steam-engine. 

GKANTS  OP  LAND  FOR  RAILROADS — THEIR 
FRIGHTFUL  CHARACTER  AND  MAGNITUDE, 

But  I  pass  to  a  separate,  though  kindred 


topic,  namc'y,  the  grants  made  by  Gougreas 
to  aid  in  building  railroads.  These  bave 
been  exceedingly  munificent,  aiul  have  be- 
come a  most  formidable  barrier  to  tl*«  set- 
tlement and  cultivation  of  onr' great  do- 
main. Congress  has  granted  ia  all,  t« 
various  Western  and  Southern  States,  over 
(iffy-seven  millions  of  acres  for  these  pus 
poses.  These  grants  have  been  madt?o< 
such  conditions  that  tlie  companies  to  wliaH 
the  alternate  odd-numbered  sections  url 
entrusted  can  hold  them  back  from  caf* 
and  settlement  till  such  time,  and  for  such 
price,  as  may  best  subserve  their  interest. 
The  lands  become  at  once  a  monopoly, 
and  the  rights  of  settlers  are  perfectly  su- 
bordinated to  its  purposes.  The  company 
may  sell  or  refuse  to  sell  ;  it  may  seH  to 
individual  settlers  or  to  a  single  purchaser. 
No  restraints  are  imposed  in  those  particu- 
lars. The  even-numbered  sections  are  like- 
wise reserved  from  Bale,  except  for  the 
price  of  $2  50  per  acre.  Unless,  therefore, 
the  road  is  between  points  and  t-hrangh  a 
country  rendering  its  speedy  construction 
very  important,  both  the  cdxl  and  even 
numbered  sections  are  kept  bacJi  from  set- 
tlement^ and  the  further  effect  of  this  wUI 
be  to  hinder  settlements  which  otherwise 
would  be  formed  adjacent  to  the  interdicted 
belt.  This  policy  builds  roads,  which  are 
highly  important ;  but  it  often  inflicts  great 
mischief  upon  the  country  by  its  discrimi- 
nations against  our  pioneer  settlers. 

Besides  these  grants  to  the  States  we 
have  donated,  on  similar  conditions,  fop  the 
construction  of  canals  and  other  improve- 
ments, over  seventeen  millions  of 
and  we  have  granted  to  the  d-iffereat 
of  the  Pacific  railroad  the  estimated  a»*gre 
gate  of  one  hundred  and  twenty-fair  mfl 
lions  of  acres.  T>ese  roads  are  of  tin 
greatest  national  importance,  and  therefore 
have  a  very  strong  plea  to  make  in  justifc 
cation  of  the  grants  made  by  Congress-; 
but  they  constitute  a  fearful  monopoly  "and 
may  hinder,  far  more  than  help,  the  actual 
settlement  of  our  groat  western  territory. 
The  several  grants  I  have  named 


10 


to  Bttfe  short  of  two  hundred  millions  of 
awes;  au€  if  we  add  to  this  the  even  num- 
bered sectiwis  along  the  lines  of  the  Pa- 
eific  road,  which  are  excluded  from  settle- 
ment under  a  reoent  ruling  of  the  Interior 
Deparfenrent,  wo  shall  have  an  aggregate  of 
about  one-third  of  the  nation's  entire  pub- 
lic domain  committed  to  the  keeping  of 
railroad  corporations.  "The  quantity  of 
lands  conveyed  by  these  grants,"  says  the 
Commissioner  of  the  General  Land  Office, 
"is  of  empire  extent,  exceeding  in  the  ag- 
gregate, by  more  than  five  millions  of  acres, 
the  entiro  areas  of  the  sis  New  England 
States,  added  to  the  surface  of  New  York, 
New  Jersey,  Pennsylvania,  Ohio,  Dela- 
ware, Maryland,  and  Virginia."  He  eays 
the  grants  to  thie  Pacific  railway  lines  alone 
"are  within  about  a  fourth  of  being  twice 
the  united  area  of  England,  Scotland, 
Wales,  Ireland,  Guernsey,  Jersey,  the  Isle 
of  Man,  and  the  islands  of  the  British 
seas,  oad  less  than  a  tenth  of  being  equal 
V>  tifre  Freaofe  empire  proper." 

HRAOT1GAL    MISCHIEFS    OP    THE    SYSTEM — JIE- 
POKMS   SUGGESTED. 

These  are  significant,  if  not  startling, 
{sicts,  a««l  tfeey  naturally  awaken  alarm 
iniong  the  multitudes  of  our  people  now 
seeking  settlements  under  the  pre-emption 
and  homestead  laws  throughout  the  West. 
I  have  recent  letters  from  intelligent  men 
in  the  Topeka  land  district  in  Kansas,  who 
say  that,  owing  to  the  land  grants  referred 
to  and  the  Indian  reservations  as  adminis- 
tered by  tire  Government,  it  has  become 
next  to»  impossible  to  spcure  a  homestead 
that  is  at  all  desirable  in  v  that  portion  of 
the  State,  and  that  many  settlers  who  have 
traveled  hundreds  of  miles  to  find  their 
homes,  on  which  they  have  settled  in  good 
faith,  are  being  driven  out  by  railroad 
»gents.  I  believe  the  time  has  come  to 
sound  the  ory  of  danger,  and  to  demand,  in 
ihe  name  of  our  pioneers  and  producers,  a 
radical  reform  in  the  policy  of  the  Govern- 
ment as  to  any  future  grants  it  may  make 
in  aid  of  these  enterprises.  AH  such  grants 


should  be  rigidly  subordinated  to  the  pa  a 
mount  purpose  of  securing  homes  for  t 
people,  the  settlement  and  improvement  > 
the  public  domain,  and  the  consequent     i 
crease  of  national  wealth.     A  bill  inaugi 
ating  this  principle  has  already  been 
ported  to  this  House  from  the  Commits 
on  Public  Lands,  and  I  earnestly  hope 
will  become  a  law.     It  provides  that  in 
future  grants  to  aid  in  building  railroc 
the  odd-numbered  sections  shall  be  sr 
only  to  actual  settlers,  in  quantities  t 
exceeding  one  hundred  and  sixty  acres,  t 
a  price  not  exceeding  ihe  maximum  of  $2 
per  acre,  and  that  any  even  sections  whi 
shall   remain  undisposed  of  at  the  expii 
tion  of  ten  years,  shall  be  subject  to  t 
same  disposition  as  all  other  public  lane 
In  addition  to  this  greatly  needed  chan 
of  policy  Congress  should  provide  for  t> 
other  reforms.    In  the  first  place,  the  ror 
asking  the  grant  should  be  an  importa 
thoroughfare,  and  especially  in  the  matt 
of  extending  settlements  and   civilizatii 
more  rapidly    than  otherwise    would 
practicable.     Such  grants  are  only  speci; 
ly  needed  in  the  case  of  long  lines  of  roa 
which  connect  distant  points,  and  pass  ov 
thinly  inhabited  sections  of  country.     E 
perience  has  shown  that  roads  will  not  1 
built  exeept  through  settlements  which  w 
supply  a  local  business,  or  as  connectii 
links  between  important  centres  of  tra< 
and  population.     The  Commissioner  of  t' 
General  Land  Office,  in  his  report  for  tl 
year  1865,  justly  remarks  that  if  upon  ai 
part  of  the  line  a  road  gets  less  land  it 
because  there  is  larger  population,  and  co 
sequontly  more  local  business ;  and  if  up< 
any  part  of  the  line  more  land  is  obtaine 
it  is  because  the  reverse  is  true.     Yet 
every  instance  it  will   be  found  that  tl 
road  is  first  constructed,  and  best  compe 
sating  to  the  stockholders,  along  that  pa 
of  its  lino  on  which  litttle  or  no  public  lac 
is  obtained.     A  road   passing    through 
region  of  country  which  invites  setflemen 
will  bo  built,  if  needed,  without  any  gnu 


11 


frf  lands,  because  settlements  will  be  form- 
ed and  the  wants  of  the  people  wifl.  necessi- 
tate it.  The  actual  settlement  of  a  new 
country  is,  after  all,  tho  paramount  con- 
eern  both  of  the  Government  and  the  peo- 
ple. With  this,  capital  will  gradually 
<jome  in,  and  such  lines  of  railroad  as  are 
found  to  be  needed  will  be  constructed. 
Without  this,  railroads  would  be  unprofitable 
enterprises,  c von  if  it  were  practicable  to 
build  them. 

The  second  reform  to  which  I  refer  is  that 
A,  fixed  lateral  limit  shall   be  made  to  the 
grant,  and  that  the  principle   of  alternate 
sections  w  place  shall  be  rigidly  adhered  to. 
The   failure  to  observe  these   requirements 
has  wrought  great  mischief  to  the  country, 
vind  to  our  pioneer  settlers.  Our  land-grant 
policy,  as  at  first  inaugurated,  gave   every 
alternate  odd-numbered  section  for  six  miles 
:n  extent  on  each  side  of  the  road.     This 
limit  should  never  have  been  enlarged,  ex- 
oept  in  tho  case  of  a  few  roads  of  very  great 
national  ntility.     By  keeping  within  these 
limits,  and  of  course  granting  no  alternate 
•sections  except,  tboso  literally  correspond- 
ing and  contiguous  to  the  even   sections, 
r,ho  value  of  the  latter  would  be  duplicated, 
wid  thus  the  Government,  while  securing 
'.he  road  and  promoting  the   settlement  of 
Uieeountry,  would  be  financially  the  gainer 
also.     But  by  enlarging  the  lateral  limits  as 
we  have  done,  to  ten  miles,  and   in  several 
instances  to  twenty,  and  even  forty  miles, 
aad  allowing  floats  or  scrip,  beyond  this 
margin,  in  lieu  of  lands  not  found  within  it, 
the  whole   policy  of  compensation  to  tho 
Government  is  overthrown,  and  our  grants 
become  a  practical  bounty  to  railroad  cor- 
porations, at  the  expense  of  actual  settlers, 
and  to  the  great  injury  of    tho   country. 
These,  floats  will,  of  course,  bo  located. at 
onco  upon  ail  the  choice  lands  nearest   the 
line  of  the  road,  and  to  the  settled  portions 
of  the  country.     The  pre-emptor  and   the 
homestead   settler  will  be  driven  further 
back  by  the  grant,  and  in  the  interest  of 
monopolists  who  will  grow  rich  by  with- 
their  lands  from  settlement  till  a 


handsome  price  can  bo  had  threwgk  the  im- 
provement of  adjoining  lands.  Tho  pioneer 
must  surrender  tbe  advantages  of  roads, 
mills,  schools,  churches,  and  such  other 
blessings  as  belong  to  a  well-ordered  com- 
munity, for  the  somewhat  imaginary  eona- 
pensation  of  a  railroad  forty  cr  fifty  miles 
distant.  Many  gentlemen  now  here  may 
remember  a  bill  which  was  reported  to  this 
House  in  the  Thirty-Ninth  Congress,  pro- 
viding for  the  construction  of  a  road  more 
than  four  hundred  miles  in  length,  and 
granting  the  odd-numbered  alternate  sec- 
tions to  the  amount  of  twenty  sections  per 
mile  on  each  side  of  the  road,  with  the  pri- 
vilege of  going  ten  miles  further,  if  neces- 
sary, to  make  up  deficiencies  occasioned  by- 
the  sale  or  other  disposition  of  any  of  the 
alternate  sections  by  the  Government  prior 
to  the  definite  location  of  the  road.  The 
passage  of  this  frightful  measure  was  earn- 
estly urged  in  the  House,  but  was  luckily 
defeated  ;  and  the  ability,  now  and  then,  to 
aid  in  strangling  such  legislative  monsters 
before  their  birth  may  be  set  down  among 
the  consolations  of  public  life.  In  some 
instances  we  have  granted  the  even  num- 
bered sections,  and  we  have  several  times 
made  large  grants,  to  be  selected  in  a  body, 
where  the  principle  involved  in  the  policy 
of  alternate  sections  could  have  no  possible 
application.  Every  year  bears  witness  to 
new  aggressions  upon  the  rights  of  settlers, 
which  seriously  threaten  to  swallow  up' the 
whole  of  our  remaining  public  domaiu. 

Sir,  this  policy  is  utterly  indefensible  and 
vicious,  and  should  be  abandoned  at  once. 
I  will  not  go  quite  so  far  as  some  gentle- 
men on  this  floor,  and  oppose  all  grants  of 
land  in  aid  of  railroads,  under  whatsoever 
restrictions.  In  legislation,  as  in  ether  af- 
fairs, the  want  of  discrimination  is  the  want 
of  common  sense.  "Good  roads,"  says 
Mill,  in  his  "Political  Economy,"  "arc 
equivalent  to  good  tools.  It  is  of  no  eon- 
sequence  whether  the  economy  of  labor 
takes  place  in  extracting  the  produce  from 
the  soil,  or  in  conveying  U  to  tho  place 
where  it  is  to  be  consumed.  Railways  and 


12 


canals  are  virtually  a  diminution  of  the 
cost  of  production  of  all  things  scat  to  mar- 
ket by  them." 

Those  enterprises  have  done  and  are  still 
doing  a  great  service  to  eur  country.  Lot 
the  Government,  by  all  honorable  means, 
lend  them  its  aid  ;  but  let  Congress  see  to 
it,  henceforward,  that  tho  saving  reforms  I 
have  suggested  shall  bo  applied. 

AGRICULTURAL  CO LEEGE  ACT — ITS  PERNICIOUS 
CONSEQUCNOES. 

Mr.  Speaker,  the  picture  I  have  drawn 
of  the  fearful  strides  of  land  monopoly  in 
our  country,  under  the  sanction  of  Con- 
gress, would  be  imperfect  without  referring 
to  some  additional  and  striking  facts  which 
fairly  belong  to  this  discussion.  The  act 
of  Congress  of  1852,  providing  for  the  es- 
tablishment of  agricultural  colleges,  grants 
to  tho  States  thirty  thousand  acres  of  the 
public  lands  for  each  of  their  Senators  and 
Representatives  in  Congress.  When  the 
provisions  of  this  act  shall  be  extended  to 
tho  States  of  tho  South,  as  they  doubtless 
will  be,  the  whole  amount  required  will  .be 
pine  million  six  hundred  thousand  acres. 
The  .States  having  public  lands  within 
their  limits  wiil  receive  and  have  set  apart 
to  them  their  respective  shares  under  ihe 
act,  which,  of  course,  will  be  so  many  great 
monopolies,  managed  with  a  view  to  the 
largest  revenue  to  aid  in  tho  buiiding  of 
colleges,  'and  not  in  the  interest  of  settlers. 
The  States  having  no  public  lands  get  their 
respective  shares  in  college  scrip  represent- 
ing them,  which  scrip  cannot  be  located  by 
the  States,  but  must  be  sold  to  individuals 
who  may  locate  it,  provided  that  not  more 
than  one  million  acre's  shall  be  located  in 
any  State.  1  do  not  know  the  present  mar- 
ket value  of  this  scrip,  but  ic  has  been 
largely  dealt  in  at  rates  ranging  from  sixty 
to  seventy  cents  per  acre;  and  probably 
this  is  as  much  Q.J  the  States  have  general- 
ly received  for  it,  instead  of  $1  25  per  acre, 
which  the  land. ought  to  be  worth. 

Mr.  DPJGG8.  I  will  state  that  I  knew 
one  instance  whoro  the  entire  college  scrip 
•f  a  Slate  %vas  cfFercd  ae  low  as  thirty- 


seven  and  a  half  cents  an  aero. 
»  Mr.  JULIAN.  Asamothod  of  building 
colleges,  therefore,  it  is  by  no  means  a  suc- 
cess ;  while  on  the  other  hand,  the  scrip 
goes  into  the  hands  of  speculators,  and  be- 
comes the  basis  of  the  most  pernicious 
monopolies  that  have  aClicted  our  country. 
Bodies  of  a  rniliiorj  acres  h aveal ready  bcefc 
appropriated  in  seven;!  of  our  western 
State's,  and  set  apart  by  this  policy  of  le 
gali/.ed  .plnndcr,  on  which,  of  course,  no 
homestead  claimant  or  pre-cimtor  may  set 
bis  foot.  The  country  is  held  bnck  from 
tillage  and  productive  wealth,  and  the  rights 
of  our  pioneer  settlers  postponed  or  denied, 
by  the  duly  authorized  rapacity  of  hungry 
monopolists.  A  company  of  speculators, 
doing  business  in  Cleveland,  Oll'.o,  and  IE 
Wall  dtreet,  New  York,  advertise  that  thej 
have  bought  the  college  scrip  of  nine  States*, 
which  thc$  me  tion,  covering  two  million* 
four  hundred  and  eighty-two  thousand  acrcft. 
They  hold  it  for  speeu  ation,  and,  of  course, 
take  no  thought  us  to  the  settlement  an4 
improvement  of  tho  public  domain.  If  H 
was  the  duty  of  the  Government  to  aid  ir. 
building  agricultural  colleges  it  would  have 
been  far  wiser  to  appropriate  money,  leav- 
ing, the  lands  of  the  country  free  to  tbost 
who  desired  them  for  homes,  and  were 
ready  to  transmute  their  labor  into  national 
wealth.  Kindred  observations  apply  if, 
our  Mexican  bounty-land  warrants,  whicb 
cover  over  thirteen  millions  of  acres  in  all. 

SWAilP  LANDS TTIEIK  RUINOUS  MANAGEMENT 

BY  TI1K  GOVCRNJ1ENT. 

Another  powerful  incentive  to  the  spirit 
of  monopoly  has  been  the  action  of  Con 
gross  respecting  what  are  celled,  "swamj 
and  overllowed  lands."  There  have  beer 
patented  to  States,  under  different  acts  o' 
Congress,  more  than  forty-three  millions  o 
acres  of  these  lands,  and  the  management 
of  them-,  whether  in  the  western  or  souther* 
States,  has  been  most  unfortunate.  This  i$ 
especially  true  of  tho  States  of  Mississippi 
Louisiana,  Arkansas,  and  Florida,  whicl 
have  received  nearly  twenty-eight  millions 
of  acres.  Of  those  lands  large  portions  <u* 


13 


dry,  and  among  the  very  best  in  tho  coun- 
try, but  they  were  purchased  in  great  bodies 
by  speculators,  and  to  this  day  continue  in 
&eir  clutches.  Accord  n;'  to  official  tables 
burnished  by  the  General  Land  Office  there 
are  now  in  the  five  land  States  of  the  South 
store  than  fiF.y-two  millions  of  acres  of  un- 
improved landy  held  by  monopolists,  wh'le 
foiirteen-Gfteenths  of.  their  people,  outside 
of  their  tow;  s  and  cities',  in  an  exclusively 
agricultural  region,  are  landless.  The:c 
are  very  sad  fact;-,  »nd  the  solution  of  them 
Constitutes,  the  real  problem  of  reconstruc- 
tion. They  arc  further  aggravated  by  the 
railroad  monopolies  of  these  States,  cover- 
ing several  millions  of  acres,  by  Spanish 
grants  in  some  of  them,  arid  by  plantation 
ideas  as  well  i:x  plantation  manners,  which 
have  survived  the  institu  inn  of  slavery. 
fiine,  patience,  and  the  policv  of  colonisa- 
tion from  other  States,  must  finally  work 
$ut  the  redemption  of  these  regions.  One 
good  step  has  already  been  taken  in  the 
.passage  of  the  southern  homestead  law; 
&ut  no  one  ean  contemplate  the  situation  of 
their  people  to-day,  and  the  weary  conflicts 
to  which  they  arc  t>  be  summoned  in  es- 
caping jr.  m  their  thraldom,  without  de- 
ploring the  mistake  of  the  •(Joverumont  in 
failing  toco-. lisuate  the  great  plantations 
of  the  rebels  durhig  the  war,  and  decimal- 
ing  them  in  the  interests  of  loyalty  and  re- 
publicanisiii. 

INDIAN  RESEKVATIONS — TREATIES  WITH  THE 
DELAWARE,  T11K  SAC  AiND  FOX,  AMD  OSAGE 
INDIANS. 

The  action  of  the  Government  in  dealing 
with  our  Indian  lands  has  been  equally  sub- 
gervieut*  to  the  interests  of  monopolists. 
Under  our  treaties  with  the  Delaware  In- 
dians, made  in  I  .SCO  and  1801,  some  two 
hundred  and  thirty-four  thousand  acres  of 
surplus  Indian  lands  were  sold  to  the  Leav- 
en worth,  Pawnee,  and  Western  Railroad 
Company,  instead  of  being  oprned  to  ac- 
tual bcttlers.  Under  another  treaty,  con 
filude-j  in  l&C'J,  ho  residue  of  liiuso  lauds, 
amounting  to  over  ninety-two  thousand 
ftares,  was  BO  Id  to  the  Missouri  lliver  Rail- 


road  Company  in  tho  latter  year,  thus  cro- 
t'ng  anotbcr  monopoly.  By  virtue  of  a 
reaty  with  the  Sac  and  Fox  Indians,  con- 
cluded in  the  year  1869,  the  trust  lands  of 
hese  Indian*^  amounting  to  two  hundred 
and  seventy-eight  thousand  two  hundred 
acres,  have  been  sold  tj  thirty-wix  different 
purchasers,  thus  creating  numerous  though 
considerable  monopolies.  As  examples,  I 
may  mention  that  John  MuManus  bought 
one  hundred  and  forty-two  thousand  nine 
inndred  and  fifteen  acres;  William  R.  Mo- 
Kean  twenty-nine  thousand  six  hundred 
ind  seventy-seven  acres;  Fuller  and  Mc- 
Donald thirty-nine  thousand  and  iifty-cighi 
acres  ;  Robert  S.  Stevens  fi;ty-onc  thousand 
six  hundred  and  eighty-nine  acres;  Hon. 
Hugh  McCulloch  seven  thousand  and  four- 
een  acres.  By  virtue  of  a  treaty  concluded 
wi;h  i he  Kickapno  Indians  in  lilG2,  the 
Atchis.;nand  Pike's  Peak  Pvaulroid  Coin- 
pjiny,  in  the  year  1865,  became  the  pur- 
,-lmMT  of  the  lunds  of  these  Indians, 
ilmounting  to  one.  hundred  and  twenty- 
three  thousand  eight  hundred  and  thirty- 
two  acres.  By  vir.uc  of  the  first  articlo 
of  a,  treaty  between  the  United  States  aixl 
the  Great  and  little  Osugc  Indians,  con- 
cluded in  the  year  18&3,  the  said  Ind  ana 
sold  r®  the  United  States  a  tract  of  cmatry 
embracing  one  million  tv,-»  hundred  and 
twenty-five  thourand  fix  hundred  and  two 
acres;  and  under  the  second  ranicle  of  .the 
treaty  they  sold,  in  trust,  the  further  quan- 
tity of  one  million  nine  hundred  and  ninety- 
six  thousand  eight  hundred  a«res,  making  the 
total  of  three  million  two  hundred  and 
twenty-two  thousand  four  hundred  and  two 
acres. 

The  treaty,  in  strange  disregard  ef  the 
rights  of  settlers,  and  of  the  true  interests 
of  the  country,  provides  that  this  vast 
area  of  land  shall  not  be  subject  to  entry 
under  tho  homestead  or  pre-emption  laws, 
but  ahall  be  sold  to  the  highest  bidder; 
and,  of  course,  following  the  examples 
already  set  in  other  cases*  a  swarm  of 
greedy  monopolists,  inoro  or  less  uumeroua, 


will  get  the  entire  amount.  The  land  is 
already  advertised  for  sale  in  May  next, 
and  several  thousands  of  settlers  who  went 
upon  it  before  the  treaty  was  proclaimed, 
many  of  them  .having  made  valuable  im- 
provements in  good  faith,  will  be  driven 
out  by  speculators,  with  whom  their  small 
means  will  not  enable  them  to  compete  at 
the  sale.  Of  course  it  is  not  strange  that 
these  settlers  are  now  greatly  alarmed  and 
distressed  by  tho  situation  in  which  they 
find  themselves;  and  the  joint  resolution  I 
reported  this  morning,  which  passed  this 
House,  was  intended  as  some  little  relief, 
and  perhaps  all  that  Congress  can  afford, 
under  the  shameful  treaty  to  which  I  have 
referred. 

CHEROKEE      NEUTRAL       LANDS  MONSTROUS 

MAL- ADMINISTRATION. 

The  Cherokee  neutral  lands  consist  of  a 
tract  fifty  miles  long  and  twenty-five  miles 
wide,  embracing  eight  hundred  thousand 
aorea.  By  treaty  with  these  Indians,  con- 
cluded in  Ihe  year  I860,  the  Secretary  of 
the  Interior  is  authorized  to  sell  these  lands 
in  a  body,  for  a  price  not  less  than  rno 
dollar  per  acra  in  oash,  except  such  tracts 
as  were  settled  upon  at  the  date  of  the 
treaty.  Accordingly,  in  October  last,  a 
contract  was  made  for  a  sale  of  these 
lands  to  one  James  F.  Joy,  in  the  inter- 
est of  the  Kansas  and  Ncosho  Valley 
Railroad  Company,  for  the  price  named, 
and  the  directors  of  the  company,  at  a  re- 
cent meeting,  have  resolved  that  such  of 
the  lands  as  are  now-occupied  by  bonaflde 
settlers  shall  be  valued  at  from  three  to 
ten  dollars  per  acre,  and  be  sold  to  said 
settlers  at  an  average  of  six  dollars  per 
acre. 

This  outrage  upon  these  people,  who 
h&vc  settled  upon  thc.se  lands  in  good  faith. 
aixl  in  many  cases  made  valuable  improve- 
ments, is  simply  monstrous.  Even  the 
treaty,  which  no  man  can  defend,  and  could 
Lave  had  no  honest  parentage,  does  not 
warrant  it  These  settlers,  in  all  conscience, 
ehould  have  their  lands  at  $1.25  per  acre. 


The  treaty  could  easily  have  been  so  matfc 
as  to  secure  to  them  this  right  beyond  que&- 
tion,  and  the  lands  themselves,  as  I  am  we!) 
assured,  could  have  been  disposed  of  di- 
rectly to  the  United  States,  and  subjected 
at  once  to  our  ordinary  policy  of  sale  an«! 
pre-emption.  No  man  can  approve  the  con- 
duct of  the  Government  in  thus  joining 
hands  with  monopolists  in  squandering  thle 
public  domain  and  conspiring  against  the 
productive  industry  of  the  country;  and 
since  there  yet  remain  largo  quantities  of 
other  Indian  lands  to  be  disposed  of,  all  of 
which  are  threatened  by  the  nek  less  policy 
I  have  exposed,  tho  voice  of  the  people 
should  be  earnestly  invoked  in  their  behalf 
before  it  shalllje  too  late. 

A  SIGNAL  OUTRAGE  AGAINST  PRTC-KMPTOR3  EX- 
POSED—  UNWELCOME  FACTS    REFERRED  TO. 

One  remarkable  instance  of  tho  espousal 
by  the  Government  of  the  claims  of  mon- 
opolists against  those  of  our  pioneer  set- 
tlers remains  to  be  noticed.  It  is  of  re- 
cenf  occurrence.  A  disputed  question 
involving  the  title  to  certain  lands  in  Cali- 
fornia was  properly  brought  before  the 
General  Land  Office  for  decision.  The 
parties  en  the  one  side  were  pre-cmptors, 
claiming  title  as  such  under  the  laws  of 
the  United  States.  The  chief  party  on  the 
other  side  was  a  perfectly  unprincipled 
monopolist,  who  had  succeeded  by  false 
representations  in  procuring  the  paseageof 
an  act  of  Congress  under  which  ho  and  hi* 
assigns  claimed  title  to  on  invalid  Spanish 
grant  of  ninety  thousand  acres,  including 
the  very  Kinds  of  tl:e  pre-emptors  rufe;  r<  d  .o. 
After  a  Cull  and  careful  hearing  the  Go'm- 
missioner  of  the  General  Lund  Office  de- 
cided in  favor  of  tho  sctilers.  The  Cali- 
fornia monopolists  thereupon  prevailed 
upon  the  Secretary  of  the  Interior  to  ask 
the  advice  of  the  Attorney  General  cf  the 
United  States  upon  the  points  of  law  iiv 
vulved,  and  they  procured  fn  in  him  a& 
Opinion,  declaring,  among  other  things,  that 
pre-emptors  on  the  public  lands  acquire  n$ 
right-3  by  their  preliminary  acts  of 


15 


rant  and  improvement,  and  are  mere  ten 
ants-at-will,    whom   the    Government  may 
eject  at  any  time  before  they  huve  com 
pleted  the  conditions  of  title.     The  Attor- 
ney General  dtd  not  controvert  the  fact  that 
the  pre-emptors  wereswh,  under  the  laws 
of  Congress,  but  he  denied  their  right  to 
the  land  ;  and  the  Secretary  of  the  Interior 
acquiesced    in    the   decision,  although  he 
knew  it  was  not  law.  and  allowed  the   land 
department  of  the  Goveinrncnt  to  be  used 
in  dispossessing  these  settlers,  in  violation 
of  the  plainest  principles  of  justice  as  well 
as  law,  in  oppo^iuon  to  numerous  and  uni- 
form decisions  cf  our  Federal    courts,  and 
to  the  whole  spirit  and  policy  of  the  Gov- 
ernment.    This  mling,  still  adhered  to  by 
the  Secretary  of  the  Interior,  strikes  at 
the  homestead  settler  as  well  as  the  prc- 
emptor,  and  is  a  mean  and  wantorv  insult 
to  both.     Should  it  be  applied  in  all  cases, 
as  it  was  cruelly  done  in   this,  it  would 
kindle  a  fire  throughout  the  West  which  it 
might  cost  the  Government  some   pains  to 
quench.     Sir,    in  the  name  of  our   grand 
army  of  pioneers,  whether  native  or  f;reign 
born,  I  denounce  it.     As  I  have  said  here 
on  another  occasion,  it  mocks  justice,  sets 
common  sense  atdrfiar.ce,  and  insults  judi- 
cial decency;  nmlthe  men  who  procured  it, 
in  behalf  of  soulless  speculators  and  land- 
sharks,  were  engaged  in  a  most  unworthy 
service.     I  must  add,  as  the  saddest  fact  of 
all,  that  this  foul  plot  of  thieving  monopo- 
lists received  the  sanction  of  the  House  of 
Representatives  of  tfie    United    States,  as 
ihown  by  its  rcccrdcd  vote  on  the  7th  day 
of  July,  in  theyeur  18GG. 

EVILS  OF  OL'lt  LAND  POLICY  GENERALLY — THE 
FINANCIAL   QUESTION. 

Mr.  Speaker,  the  facts  I  have  submitted 
should  alarm  every  real  friend  of  our  coun- 
try. This  wholesale  prostitution  of  the 
•people's  heritage,  this  merciless  crusade 
the  ri^hrta  of  coming  generations, 
*  insumtly.  It  will  tax  all 
.  our  rulers  to  heal  the  wounds 
upoa  our  country,  and 


which  have  laid  hold  on  its  very  lift.    Whii« 
the  power  of  Government  to  do  good  is 
limited,  and  negative  at  best,  its  capacity 
for  evil  is  practically  infinite.     It  has  bean 
said  truly   that  the  influence  of  the  laws 
under  which  we  live  pervades  the  national 
character,  is  felt  in  every  transaction  of  ear 
social  existence,  and  is  seen,  like  the  frogs 
of  Pharaoh,    "in  our  houses  and  in.  our 
beds,  in  our   ovens  aad  in  our  koeadkig- 
troughs."     Our  land  policy  will  have  its 
enduring    monument    in  the  very  cinrses 
which  it  plants  in  its  footsteps,  and  writes 
down  upon  the  soil.     It  poisons  our  social 
life    by    checking    the    multiplication    of 
American   homes,  and  the  growth  of  the 
domestic  virtues.     It  tends  to  aggregate  our 
people  in  towns  and  cities,  and  render  them 
mere  consumers,  instead  of  dispersing  them 
over  our  territory,  and  tempting  them  t« 
become  the  owners  of  land  and  the  creator} 
of  wealth.     It  fosters  the  tiiste  for  artificia 
ife,  and   the  excitements  to  be  foand  ii 
ircat  centers  of  population,  instead  of  hold 
^ng  up   the   truth   that    "God   made  thx 
•ountry,"  and  intended  it  to  bo  peopled 
and   enjoyed.     It  dries  up  tke  sourees  of 
^rodtfctive  wealth,  as  I  have  already  shown, 

nd  thus  fatally  abridges  the  revenues,  now 
so  much  needed  in  meeting  our  national 
obligations.  As  a  mere  scheme  of  finante, 

believe  the  passage  of  the  bill  now  be- 
bre  us  would  be  decidedly  the  boat  of  the 
muny  which  have  been  proposed  and  de- 
bated. The  great  want  of  the  country  to- 
day is  more  producers,  and  to  this  end  a 
>olicy  which  shall  draw  from  the  older 
States  and  from  cur  overcrowded  cities  the 
millions  of  unemployed  men  who  arc  s«eek- 
ng  to  live  by  their  wits,  and  to  evade  the 
command  that  "in  the  sweat  of  thy  face 
.halt  thou  cat  thy  bread."  This,  sir,  is  my 
)olicy  of  finauco.  Tho  money  whioh  ia  to 
pay  our  debt  must  be  dug  from  the  soil,  and 
rom  our  mines ;  and  whatever  decision 
Congress  may  make  as  to  the  taxation  ef 
uur  bonds,  or  the  kind  of  money  in  which 
hey  shall  be  paid,  or  the  further  contra*- 
tion  or  expansion  ef  the  currency,  or  the 


16 


rcadjustroont  of  our  tariff  and  internal 
fpvorme  system,  our  national  debt,  after 
all,  ransC  bo  paid.  That  hard  duty  I*  un- 
avoidably laid  upau  us,  aad  there  ia  no 
royal  road  to  its  performance.  In  the 
broadest  and  best  sense  of  the  term,  there- 
fore, this  bill  is  a  measure  of  financial  re- 
lief; and  should  it  become  a  lu\v,  it  will 
stand  forth  a*  a  great  landtnark  in  the  legis- 
lation »f  the  country,  and  as  the  crowning 
aotef  a  policy  which  has  sought  to  find 
expression  for  more  than  fifty  j  ears.  In  the 
oariy  period  of  the  Government  settlements 
««  the  public  domain  were  forbidden  by  law. 
In  the  year  1807  Congress  even  provided 
for  the  removal  of  persons  who  should  at- 
tempt settlements  wit  Lout  authority  oflaw. 
this  illiberal  treatment  of  our  pioneers  was 
)f  short  duration,  but  the  policy  of  prc- 
imptiaa  was  of  slow  growth,  and  was  only 


finally  perfected  in  the  year  1841.  Twenty- 
one  years  later  the  homestead'  law  was 
enacted,  recognizing  still  further  the  jusfc 
claims  of  settlers  ;  but  it  allowed  the  Rpec- 
uUtor  to  cripple  and  harass  them  at  every 
step,  and  thus  seriously  to  frnslrate  the 
great  and  beneficent  ends  which  otherwise 
it  would  have  perfectly  accomplished.  It 
way  a  half-way  measure  of  relief,  pointing 
as  naturally  to  the  complete  remedy  now 
proposed  as  did  the  prc-eir.ption  laws  point 
tothofar  broader  policy  of  the  homestead  act. 
Lei  us  now  apply  it,  and  thus  extend  the 
Kordcrs  of  our  civilization,  increase  our  na- 
tional wealth,  curb  the  ra-vagcs  of  .monopo- 
lists, satisfy  the  earth-hunger  of  the  multi- 
tudes who  arc  striving  for  homes  on  our 
soil,  and  thus  practically  reassert  the  righ* 
of  people  to  life,  liberty,  and  the  pursuit  of 
happiness. 


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